Impersonal verbs - Easy Learning Grammar Italian

What is an impersonal verb?In English an impersonal verb has the subject it, but this ‘it’does not refer to any specific thing; for example, It’s going to rain; It’s nine o’clock.

1Verbs that are always impersonal

Verbs such as piovere (meaning to rain) and nevicare (meaning to snow), are always impersonal because there is no person, animal or thing doing the action.

They are used only in the ‘it’ form, the infinitive, and as a gerund (the –ing form of the verb).

Piove.

It’s raining.

Sta piovendo?

Is it raining?

Ha iniziato a piovere.

It started to rain.

Nevicava da due giorni.

It had been snowing for two days.

Pensi che nevicherà?

Do you think it’ll snow?

Note that the perfect and pluperfect tenses of verbs to do with the weather such as piovere, nevicare, grandinare (meaning to hail) and tuonare (meaning to thunder) can be made either with avere or essere.

Ha piovuto or è piovuto molto ieri.

It rained a lot yesterday.

Aveva nevicato or era nevicato durante la notte.

It had snowed during the night.

2Verbs that are sometimes impersonal

fare is used impersonally to talk about the weather and time of day:

Fa caldo.

It’s hot.

Fa freddo.

It’s cold.

Faceva bel tempo.

It was good weather. OR The weather was good.

Fa sempre brutto tempo.

The weather’s always bad.

Fa notte.

It’s getting dark.

TipFa niente means It doesn’t matter.

è, and other tenses of essere are used impersonally, like it’s and other tenses of to be in English.

È tardi.

It’s late.

Era presto.

It was early.

È da tre ore che aspettano.

It’s three hours now that they’ve been waiting.

Era Pasqua.

It was Easter.

Non era da lei fare così.

It wasn’t like her to act like that.

TipJust use the verb by itself when talking about the time or the weather. There is no Italian equivalent for “it”.

essere is used in impersonal constructions with adjectives, for example:

with an adjective followed by an infinitive

È facile capire che qualcosa non va.

It’s easy to see that something’s wrong.

Mi è impossibile andar via adesso.

It’s impossible for me to leave now.

È stato stupido buttarli via.

It was stupid to throw them away.

Sarebbe bello andarci.

It would be nice to go there.

with an adjective followed by che

È vero che sono stato impaziente.

It’s true that I’ve been impatient.

Era bello che ci fossimo tutti.

It’s nice that we were all there.

Grammar Extra!When an impersonal construction with che is used to refer to something that is a possibility rather than a fact, the following verb must be in the subjunctive.The following impersonal expressions refer to what might, should, or could be the case, rather than what is the case, and therefore they are always followed by the subjunctive: